Overview of the regulation of hazardous chemicals: SDWA (Safe Drinking Water Act), RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act), and CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act)
The regulation of nonradioactive hazardous chemicals is carried out under a number of federal environmental laws that regulate either hazardous products, substances, or wastes. Because each law is intended to provide protection from different classes of substances (e.g., wastes vs products) or protect different media (e.g., air, water, land), the standards and levels of protection for different hazardous chemicals may be different. Nevertheless, one agency -- the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) -- has primary responsibility for both promulgating regulations mandated by Congress under the various statutes and enforcement of the regulations. One overriding principal underlies the maze of complex regulations that govern the transport, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous substances: protect human health and the environment. It is beyond the scope of this talk to comprehensively examine all of the regulations and standards that govern the management of hazardous chemicals. Instead this discussion will focus on three statutes, the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), that together provide a basis for a basic understanding of the approach that the EPA takes to regulating hazardous chemicals.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 5905272
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8906140-3; ON: DE89015061
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Health Physics Society summer school, Santa Fe, NM, USA, 19-23 Jun 1989; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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